Kerry, Russian FM join Iran nuclear talks

11/23/2013

ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives at Geneva International airport in Switzerland today for the Iran nuclear talks.

GENEVA — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers of other major powers joined Iran nuclear talks today, throwing their weight behind a diplomatic push to complete a deal after envoys reported progress on key issues blocking an interim agreement to curb the Iranian program in return for limited sanctions relief.

Kerry was joining foreign ministers from the five other countries — Russia, Britain, France, China and Germany — that have been negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program for years. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the talks had reached “the final moment,” according to China’s Xinhua news agency.

Before leaving Washington, Kerry said he had no particular expectation that an agreement could be reached this week but decided to come after talking with top European Union diplomat Catherine Ashton on Friday.

Germany’s Guido Westerwelle spoke of “a realistic chance, but there is still a lot of work to do.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA-Novosti news agency that negotiations were very close to a breakthrough but “unfortunately I cannot say that there is assurance of achieving this breakthrough.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters he wanted “a deal — but a solid deal — and I am here to work toward that end.”

France’s concern that the negotiators were rushing into a flawed deal with Iran helped delay an agreement during a session nearly two weeks ago.

The ministers rushed to Geneva after diplomats said Friday that Iranian Foreign Minister and Ashton, who is hosting the meeting, had made progress on a key sticking point — Iran’s claim to a right to produce nuclear fuel through uranium enrichment.

Enrichment is a hot-button issue because it can be used both to make reactor fuel and to make nuclear weapons. Iran argues it is enriching only for power, and scientific and medical purposes, and says it has no interest in nuclear arms.

Washington and its allies point to Tehran’s earlier efforts to hide enrichment and allege it worked on developing such weapons.

Iran has insisted on that right throughout almost a decade of mostly fruitless negotiations. But Zarif last weekend indicated that Iran is ready to sign a deal that does not expressly state that claim.

Iranian hard-liners are suspicious of talk of nuclear compromise since moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in September, fearing his team will give not get enough in terms of sanctions relief over the six-months of any first-stage agreement.

Several U.S. senators — both Democrat and Republican — have voiced displeasure with the parameters of the potential agreement, arguing that the U.S. and its partners are offering too much for something short of a full freeze on uranium enrichment.

On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country would never compromise on “red lines.” Since then Tehran has publicly reverted to its original stance — that the six powers must recognize uranium enrichment as Iran’s right, despite strong opposition by Israel and within the U.S. Congress.

Still, comments from Iranian officials in Geneva indicated that reverting to tough talk on enrichment may be at least partially meant for home consumption.

In Geneva, a senior Iranian negotiator said the Iranian claim to the right to enrich did not need to be explicitly recognized in any initial deal, despite Khamenei’s comment, adding that the supreme leader was not planning to intervene in the talks. He did suggest, however, that language on that point remained difficult and that there were other differences.

The negotiator demanded anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss the confidential talks.

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